


I'm Here To See You Home

by deandratb



Category: One Day at a Time (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bodyguard, Alternate Universe - Royalty, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2018-09-29
Packaged: 2019-07-18 23:44:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16129157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deandratb/pseuds/deandratb
Summary: Penelope's royal mother hires a new bodyguard to protect the family. The newly-divorced princess is less than thrilled.





	I'm Here To See You Home

**Author's Note:**

> Anonymous prompt: **bodyguard AU + royal AU**

Grand Duchess Lydia Riera came from a prominent Cuban family before she married her husband, the Grand Duke, and had their daughter Penelope.

Growing up in America instead of Cuba made Penelope a terrible princess in the eyes of her mother, less interested in functions and fashion and spending too much time in the public eye helping people. Not that there was anything wrong with philanthropy, of course, but some things just weren’t proper. 

And divorce, which the princess had gone through in a highly visible way, was most certainly one of those things. Lydia was glad to have her daughter back at their summer palace with her children, but the scandal Penelope left behind was a cloud that hovered over their every conversation.

It was into that picture that Schneider strolled, summoned by the Grand Duchess on recommendation from a prince he used to guard. She was charmed by the way he calmly detailed his qualifications, so unimposing while he offered her family perfect marksmanship and physical prowess.  

Schneider was brought onto the family’s security team, guarding each of them in turn, from the matriarch who liked to tell him stories of her childhood to the young prince who wanted to talk sports and games and really anything that wasn’t related to his royal heritage and responsibilities. Schneider felt bad for Alex, he would be going crazy in courtly lessons, too…so he snuck him contraband when he could and ignored Penelope’s glares.

The princess, in fact, was the hardest royal to win over. She didn’t want a bodyguard, she insisted she did not  **need**  a bodyguard–she took care of her family without any outside help just fine before they arrived, thank you very much. Schneider tried to stay in the background, giving her space to adjust, but Penelope used that to slip free during his shifts and roam the city in disguise. 

After his third retrieval of a frustrated and deeply stubborn princess from the world outside her family’s walls, he made Penelope a deal: allow him to accompany her for safety when she escaped, and Schneider would keep her absences a secret. 

Free from the world she never asked to be born into, where she had trouble breathing until she married and moved on, she let Schneider see who she really was, and opened herself up to knowing him better. Eventually their outings started to feel more like dates, and Princess Penelope Alvarez took joy in the fact that their relationship would drive her mother crazy: the only thing more scandalous than divorcing a proper match would be to marry a commoner.

When she mentioned this idly to Schneider one day, as they were planning the revelation of their relationship, he tilted his head and blinked at her, surprised. 

Then he pointed out that he never claimed to be a commoner–just a really good bodyguard. It was work he enjoyed, that made his family see him as a bit of a black sheep…all things Penelope knew. 

What she had somehow missed the memo on until they were already in love was the fact that he happened to be both a bodyguard and a prince, by way of his European mother. He just ran even faster and farther than Penelope did to escape for awhile.

“God, a prince. My mother’s going to be ecstatic,” Penelope groaned, as Schneider kissed the top of her head. 

“We’ll have kids and raise them in an apartment,” he offered her cheerfully. “She’ll hate that.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title borrowed from "Home" by Bruno Major.


End file.
